Harms to Police Dogs: Barking Up the Wrong Tree 429 time, and the first 125 officers were to be placed with the animal police by September 2011 ‘Of course those people are fond of animals but they often see dogs chiefly as a weapon or a tool And yes, they care about animals but you can’t expect these people with such a strong drive all of a sudden to take little kittens out of a tree’, said Jos Hermans of the Union ANVP in the daily Algemeen Dagblad of Saturday, July 2011 An aggrieved ‘dog man’ sent me a copy of that article He thought it striking and disappointing that the union man made a distinction between working with animals and working for animals because it is assumed that people working with dogs see these animals particularly as instruments and the officers working for the animal police, on the other hand, are expected to dispose of their instrumental approach towards the dog, and above all, show compassion for the animal On the one hand, the reaction of the angry handler fits in well with what I have written: someone who has a higher position in the police hierarchy lacks the knowledge of what the work of the dog handler really involves, but on the other hand, it is striking that a union man in particular described in his account the instrumental relation between a dog and its handler It could possibly mean that the constant paradox cannot directly be linked to the hierarchical system in the police force Because if the union man is right, the instrumental view on animals would also exist among dog handlers in the workplace I am rather apprehensive to offer a firm conclusion at this stage, but it has raised a number of questions First of all, we should ask ourselves, what is it that motivates police officers to decide to work with dogs When I recall the conversations I had with the dog handlers, I had the impression that some of them liked nothing better in their career than working with dogs although some clearly seemed to see their work with animals more as an intermediate stage within the broad development of their career within the force These people clearly had a different look on aothas Christensen and Crank (2001) discuss the difference between officers who have had a rural background and those who have not A rural background would, leaving rank and position aside, perhaps influence the way the handler experiences and appreciates his job with a police dog Furthermore, we need to consider what sort of change of views on the role and position of the dog could occur during the developing career of a dog handler Because, where is it stated that the various views on police dogs are set in stone? Why should a hardliner not be able to learn to build a social relationship with a dog and is it really impossible for a dog lover to become more receptive to a more concise approach with regard to police dogs?